


Bar Elate

by katyedavis



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-09
Updated: 2016-10-09
Packaged: 2018-08-20 11:56:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8247884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katyedavis/pseuds/katyedavis
Summary: Hermione's feelings had done exactly what she instructed them to do. Disappear. Now that it had ruined her relationship with Ron, she needed to leave and find out why she couldn't just be happy. Unexpectedly, she ran into someone in Paris that she never though she would see again.





	

Hermione was racking with sobs and screaming obscenities at Ron while she threw things around the room in an angry state. She was so angry at him that she didn’t know what to do.   
At least, that’s how she pictured it to be. 

Instead of doing those things she just sat on the end of their bed. She was completely silent and still. They had another one of their “fights” and this time Hermione was sure she knew where it was going. In her head she was throwing things around the room and crying her eyes out but on the outside it felt impossible. In fact, she hadn’t cried since the end of the war when she claimed that she had no tears left to give.   
“How can you be so quiet at a time like this?” Ron wondered sadly. 

“What would you like for me to do?” Hermione questioned, turning to look at the man standing in the doorway.

“Why do I always have to tell you what to do and how to feel? This is exactly what we were fighting about!” Ron shouted, throwing his hands up in the air as a sign of defeat. 

Hermione just shook her head and stared at the floor. She feared this would happen and now this argument was going exactly where she thought it was. It’s been heading in this direction for some years now and she couldn’t say that she hadn’t expected it. It had been seven years. 

“I don’t know what to tell you, Ron. I can’t explain myself to you and there isn’t enough magic in the universe for me to be able to materialize into something that you’ll be happy with!” She yelled before actually thinking through what she said. 

Her life was completely falling apart but she acted as if it was something she needed to get used to. She treated it as though emotions were completely discarded from her life which, most of the time, she believed to be the truth. She claimed that she had taught herself not to feel and not to become any closer to anyone than she had to be; but that was a lie. All in all, she was the reason this relationship was in ruins. It’s not that she didn’t love Ron, she always would, but she couldn’t force herself to show emotion when it clearly wasn’t available for her to perform. 

“I’m happy with you! Why can’t you understand that?!” He argued with her.

“I understand perfectly! You are happy when I act like my old self or if I fake showing the slightest bit of emotion. I can’t be that girl anymore. Why can’t YOU understand that?” 

Ron kept his position in the doorway and couldn’t take his eyes off of Hermione. At least, he thinks it’s still Hermione. She wasn’t the girl he fell in love with and she had been right about one thing: she wasn’t the same girl. 

“Why did she disappear?” Ron questioned. 

Hermione just threw her hands up in defeat and shrugged even though she knew exactly what happened to her. She was only a voice now. 

“Maybe we need to…take a break from this,” Ron said, finally. 

Hermione couldn’t bring herself to cry over the thought or to even act surprised at his words. Something inside her had told her the exact same thing but she wanted to take a step further. 

“Or just end it all together,” She whispered but she knew that Ron had heard her.

Hermione couldn’t look at him directly but she watched his reaction through the reflection on the window that she was currently staring absently out. She watched him take heavy sighs and rake his hands through his red hair that had darkened over time. His hands were shaking in that weird way when he was getting upset. She watched him reach for his empty suitcase that had been carelessly lying on the floor from his last trip. She wanted to laugh at the fact that after she had told him to put it up so many times that he still hadn’t. However, it wasn’t the right time and she couldn’t bring herself to smile. 

“Where are you going?” Hermione questioned, finally turning around to face the distressed red head. 

“I’m going to stay at Harry’s while I look for another flat. You can have this one,” He offered but she held her hand up and walked over to take the empty suitcase out of his hand. 

“No, I still own my other flat. You can stay here. I’ll be the one to leave,” Hermione told him.

Even though they had lived together for two years she couldn’t stand to part with her very first flat that she struggled so hard to pay off. She kept everything she had in that flat and she wasn’t going to let it go. She wanted to give her relationship with Ron the chance it deserved after years and years of pining after him. If anything, the emotions had swapped slightly between the two. He was more emotional whereas she was more lifeless. Ron just nodded to her and went in for a hug that she returned stiffly. He was right. She wasn’t herself and the years that passed only made it worse. 

She waved her wand around the room and watched as several boxes filled up with her clothes and gift things that had been given to her by Ron over the years. She saw pictures and things fly about the room and land carefully in the boxes while Ron just stared absent mindedly at the ground. Hermione caught sight of the necklace that had their promise ring attached to it and reached up to grab it from the air. She took his hand gently and set it in the middle of his palm while covering it up with his fingers. 

Ron was doing what she should be doing. Crying. 

“I hope you find everything you want,” Ron said, reaching up to push a stray curl from her cheek and placed it behind her ear.

His hands used to be so warm but they had become so cold due to the situation. She heard the last box seal itself and she waved her wand once more to transport those things to her flat.

“I don’t want anything. I want you to find everything you want. Someone that can be happy all the time and laugh with you like I once did,” she said, yearning to kiss his forehead goodbye. 

After she squeezed his hand, he looked up to see that she had disappeared completely but he didn’t know to what extent that she had disappeared. 

-XOX-

Hermione stood in the middle of her flat that she hadn’t set foot in for a couple of years. Everything looked the same and she still saw that the cleaning charm she had set had kept her flat free of cobwebs and dust. If anything, the flat looked lived in. The boxes had already begun to unpack themselves but she halted them from anything further. 

Could she really stay here?

Everything felt so far from her now but not far enough. Her relationship had fallen to bits and her life was still moving on without her. She still couldn’t cry but she couldn’t even bring herself to feel relief. She needed a holiday. A very long holiday. 

Her doorbell rang but she knew that it was either Harry or Ginny standing at her door. No doubt, Ron had already told them of their break up even if it had been only five minutes. Hermione unlocked the door from where she stood and watched Ginny step through the door with her hair thrown over one shoulder. Ginny just stared at Hermione but not in an angry way. She was concerned and she had every right to be. 

“Hermione…” Ginny started but Hermione held her hand up. 

“Tea?” Hermione questioned, going into the kitchen and realizing that her food preservation charm had also worked. 

She started the water on the stove and sat at her dining table with her hand holding up her head but her mind was so far away. 

“Hermione, what is going on?” Ginny questioned, softly. 

“Nothing,” Hermione answered shortly. 

“That’s usually your answer but, for some reason, it seems more distant than usual.” Ginny answered.

The teapot whistled and Hermione walked sluggishly towards her cabinet to begin the preparations of what one does while making tea. She sat one mug down in front of Ginny and Hermione had carelessly left her cup sitting on the counter. 

“I fear that it is worse than usual,” Hermione whispered. 

“Hermione, I don’t know how to help you if you don’t tell me how…” Ginny offered, getting up to get Hermione’s cup and placing it gingerly in front of her. 

“That’s the thing, Ginny…you can’t help me. There’s no one that can but I’ve had a thought for a while that might sound crazy.” Hermione said, sitting up a little taller. 

Ginny eyed her friend carefully and watched her eyes that had once burned with such determination and light look so lifeless that they almost looked inhuman. Hermione just glanced at the tea in her cup and realized that she needed to do this. She needed to do this for herself and for everyone around her. 

“I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let myself feel again…I have to break out of this, Ginny. I’m ruining myself and everyone else in the process.” Hermione said.

“So, what are you going to do?” Ginny questioned, sipping her tea but becoming fully entranced in the conversation.

“I’m going to leave,” Hermione whispered. 

Ginny almost spit her tea out but swallowed it before she had the chance. Hermione mindlessly handed her friend a napkin as Ginny began coughing.

“And where are you going?” Ginny questioned, her voice hoarse. 

“Far away.” Hermione answered, sipping her tea. 

“What about your job?” Ginny asked.

“Give Harry my notice for me, I’m quitting,” Hermione answered. 

“You sound like you’ve been planning this,” Ginny said, eyeing Hermione. 

“I have. For a week I’ve been planning a getaway. I need to get away from the remainders of the war and everything else in between. I’ll write to you, I promise.” Hermione said, getting up from the table and walking toward the door.

When Ginny turned around to stop her friend she noticed that everything in the flat had disappeared. The flat looked completely empty and the only thing that remained was the chair that Ginny was currently sitting in, the table, and the lone mug half filled with fresh tea. However, once she got up from the chair it disappeared like everything else in the flat. 

Hermione always did know how to make an exit. 

-XOX- 

2 Weeks Later

Hermione fell onto her couch that was currently sitting in her new flat that she had been trying to unpack for the past couple of weeks. She had moved to Paris as part of her getaway and she didn’t know how long she would stay there. However, she did notice how much relief flooded her body when she had finally unpacked everything herself. 

She vowed to not use magic while she was living in Paris. Having been muggle born she found it fairly simple but she forgot how tedious it was to unpack your very own apartment and job hunt. She felt normal for once and it reminded her so much of home with her parents…those parents that she would never have again. 

She felt the wall rebuild itself and she kept telling herself that she can’t do that. She can’t think about anyone anymore. She can’t think about what happened in London or any of her friends. Of course, she would write to Ginny once a month but otherwise she couldn’t think about it. 

Hermione, sore, got up from the couch and looked out her window to view the sun going down behind the Eiffel Tower. She took a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth before closing her eyes. She could do this. She believed in herself. 

Crookshanks meowed by her feet and begged for her to feed him which is something she did hastily after realizing that she would be late for work.   
Now, you’re going to think that what she does for a living now is quite unlike her but she had never felt more relieved to have a change of pace. To be able to study again was something that could bring out a side of her that everyone knew and loved. 

“Welcome to Bar Elate, what can I get you?” Hermione questioned, forcing a smile on her face as she took the guys bar order.

She was the fastest and most knowledgeable bartender in the business and she had only been there two weeks. She had become a favorite among the regulars because they found her beautiful and charming which is something that she wasn’t used to. Here, they didn’t describe her as brainy but they depicted her as intelligent and beautiful. 

“Alright, so let me get this straight, you want a Gimlet,” Hermione said, pointing to the guy at the end of the bar. 

She continued from one end of the bar to the next and spouted out orders like it was no big deal. Everyone was quite impressed that she never got a drink wrong. 

“I have to say, I’m quite impressed…” said a voice that sounded familiar to Hermione. 

She didn’t look to see if she was right and just smiled while she cleaned glasses to have them ready for the next evening. 

“I hear that a lot. Thank you, mister?” She said, and looked up to meet a pair of steel eyes that were as icy as she ever remembered. 

“Malfoy. Mr. Malfoy,” He said, a smirk playing on his lips. 

She gasped quietly and then cursed the fact that she had to take his drink order.


End file.
